Most people that know me will not think of me as a happy-go-lucky person.  Basically my life has sucked.  But I want to share the best day of my life with anyone that will listen.

James and I were very competitive, even when it came to stupid things like video games.  We used to play race-car games a lot, and James was the only person that ever gave me fits of rage.  Not only COULD he beat me, he could CONSISTANTLY beat me which led to a few temper tantrums on my end.  While he should have rubbed my nose into those small victories, he usually just basked in his glory and took pleasure in watching me have the tantrum.  He is the only person I know that enjoyed racing, not just in games but in real life.  We had many debates about who was better, his favorite racer Michael Schumaker or my favorite racer Juan Pablo Montoya.  He was the only person I could talk to about it; nobody else cared about racing.

So one day James hands me this envelope, and I told him that I'm not opening his anthrax-laced trap but he just laughed and insisted that I open it.  So I did, and there was a ticket to the United States Formula 1 Grand Prix being held in Indianapolis.  I just stared at it in disbelief, and he said that he didn't want to go alone and couldn't think of a better candidate to go with him.  The trip to get there itself was part of the fun; visions of Ford Explorers rolling over danced through my head when we had car trouble at 70mph on those midwestern highways.  AND he forgot the tickets!  If it had been anybody else I probably would have been upset and freaking out, but since it was James I wasn't terribly surprised to discover the tickets were missing.  But we figured out how to make it happen, like we did with so many things in our lives.

The race was surreal to me, espeically since Michael Schumaker was recently paralyzed during a skiing trip and will never race again.  First the stock cars came out and raced.  They were pretty loud, but James and I felt that they weren't loud enough to warrant hearing protection.  And then the F1 cars came out for a warm-up lap.  When they blipped the throttles, it sounded like a seam was being torn in our dimension and every demon from the underworld was trying to escape through it.  It was the loudest thing I've ever heard, and I've been to many air shows.  I just remember we looked at each other and giggled like schoolgirls when we heard those cars go past.  He got to see his favorite racer, the legendary Michael Schumaker.  I got to see my favorite racer, the not-quite-as-legendary Juan Pablo.  We had a blast touring the famous Indianapolis Raceway's museum, which was filled with all sorts of the most awesome race cars from history!  And at the race I was intoxicated by the smell of the fuel, hot rubber, the cheering of the crowd... and I was enjoying it all with my best friend, who was practically a brother to me!

I will never forget that day.  It was the best day of my life, and James made it happen.  Sorry Larry and Joan, but the Christmas where you gave me an egg beater has to take second place, but it's a close second place.  I can't express how much it means to me to have spent the best day of my life with James.  He was a kindred spirit that I could lean on, and I don't think I'll ever have someone like that in my life again.  I don't know why he had to leave this world so early, but I know that this world wouldn't be nearly as nice if he had never been part of it.

Vaya con dios, mis amigo.